How to keep your leather dress shoes from pronounced creasing?

Creasing in leather shoes is normal, but there are things that can be done to keep your shoes from showing very pronounced creases. From my experience, after having worn ready-to-wear and bespoke custom made shoes, the main reason why leather shows pronounced creasing behind the toe box area is due to a shoe that is too large for our feet. It is the extra leather that gives room for the shoe to crease and stay creased. I have been wearing this pair of cap-toe oxfords for 2 to 3 times a week for the past 18 months and I have been able to keep them in this state basically using the two tips below:

1. Using leather conditioning regularly on your shoes helps the leather to keep its moisture and therefore to stay soft and expanded. When leather becomes dry, it shrinks and hardens, making creases more pronounced.

2. It is important to use shoe trees whenever your shoes are not being worn. The shoe tree gives shape to the leather helping the creased areas to return to its uncreased state.

In the name of keeping things simple, these two steps are the most important ones to keep your shoes looking great and crease-less.